At an exit side of a flying shear, a stacker is disposed via a transferring apparatus so as to neatly stack plate members each having a predetermined length and sheared by the flying shear.
As this kind of conventional stacker, a stacker that stacks plate members while naturally dropping them or a stacker that stacks plate members while positioning them with a cam driven by an electronically controlled actuator are known.
Now, a plate-shaped inner fin to be disposed in a heat exchanging tube for car air-conditioning evaporators is formed into a thin and wavy cross-section. In cases where these inner fins are stacked by utilizing such a conventional stacker, there are the following problems.
In the former stacker that stacks plate members by naturally dropping them, there is a problem that the inner fin may be deformed by the impact at the time of dropping because the inner fin is thin and therefore easy to be deformed. Furthermore, since the inner fin is thin and that the inner fin is generally made of aluminum or its alloy and therefore very light in weight, the dropping rate is slow, which in turn deteriorates the stacking rate. Furthermore, since the inner fin is made into a wavy cross-section, it is hard to specify the dropping direction thereof, which causes difficulty in neatly arranging them.
On the other hand, in the latter stacker that stacks plate members with a cam, since the inner fin is positioned one by one, the stacking rate is slow. Furthermore, since the inner fin is easily deformed because of the thin thickness, the cam causes a deformation of the inner fin.
Furthermore, it was difficult to neatly stack the inner fins since the inner fins with no oil are hard to slide with each other.
The present invention was made in view of the aforementioned technical background, and aims to provide a stacker capable of moving not only thick plate members but also thin plate members such as inner fins to a stacking position at a high rate without causing any deformation of the plate members, a method of stacking plate members and a stacked plate members stacked by the method.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following preferred embodiments.